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After more than twenty-five years of putting work and family ahead of caring for myself, I had grown from a scrawny college freshman into a typical middle-aged American man. At 44, my daughters asked me to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. After researching the trip online, I wasn’t certain I could make it.

Like most people, I had made periodic attempts to lose weight over the years. We had acquired a home gym, a fancy treadmill, and a high-tech exercise bike. There were even some success stories; once dropping 15 pounds while working in Germany, running a 10k in less than an hour, and occasionally flirting with giving up alcohol.

My reality was mainstream as I bought pants with multiple waist sizes that I bounced between as I expanded and contracted. That summer, I weighed in at 200 pounds and looked like an average dad and businessman. It might have been normal, but it was not good – I was carrying around 60 pounds of fat on a 5’10” frame.

So, I began to get serious. The hike in Peru was a motivator. I did not want to disappoint my daughters and I did not want to disappoint myself. Over the next few months of serious dieting and exercise, including weight training and lots of cardio, I lost 25 pounds of fat and gained 15 pounds of muscle. A month after my 45th birthday I hiked the Inca Trail at 190 pounds. I felt pretty good about the accomplishment.

That is where I stayed, more or less, for the next couple of years. I continued to exercise and continued to struggle with controlling my weight as the goal of the hike was replaced with the everyday stresses of work and home. At 190, even after the transformation, I was still carrying around body fat equal to almost 20% of my weight.

There seemed to be no amount of dieting or exercise that could affect that. It should have been simple physics. Burn more energy than you consume and you will lose weight. I was stuck in the “calories in – calories out” paradigm and it wasn’t working.

And then, at 48 years old, a friend challenged me to try the Whole30 eating plan for a month. I researched the plan and thought that it would be near impossible to follow. But I had been challenged and I never back down from a challenge. (Thanks Kasey!)

So, I did it for thirty straight, life-changing days.

The elimination of all added sweeteners, dairy, grains, legumes and alcohol from my diet had a profound effect. After a ten-day period of feeling like I had been run over by a truck, I began to feel fantastic as I lost another twenty pounds, bottoming out at 170 at the end of the month. It felt as if I had uncovered a secret formula for beating back the dad bod. As an added benefit, my chronic heartburn was gone, my cholesterol was down, and the nurse no longer looked concerned when taking my blood pressure.

Over the past two years I have completed three more strict Whole30 programs at roughly six-month intervals. The plan, however, has had an incredible impact on the way I eat all the time. My relationship with food has changed dramatically. I do not deprive myself, but I am very conscious of what I put in my body and how it makes me feel. I had been eating crap and trying to exercise it off in the gym. It wasn’t working.

I am now pretty steady 180 pounds with a body fat percentage of less than 10%. During my bi-annual strict Whole30s, I usually drop another five or ten pounds and once pushed my body fat down below eight percent. I still exercise, but now I see real results. As I shed layers of fat, the muscle I had gained by lifting weights was exposed.

Whole30 adherents will object to my focus on weight loss and body composition. They just want me to talk about the health benefits of eating well. Whatever. I have abs at 50! And I have more energy, and I sleep better, and I have greater mental clarity, etc., etc.

Fitness experts say that no one regimen works for everybody. While I think that is probably true, I cannot help but believe that it must start with food. The American diet has changed so dramatically in the past 40 years that it takes real effort to avoid the bad stuff. Every processed food in the store has added sugar or sweetener. The industrial agricultural complex has sold us on unhealthy and unsustainable ways of eating. Getting back to basics opened me up to a whole new world of flavorful options. This is not about deprivation. It is about exploration and experimentation and listening to your body. Many chronic health conditions can be linked to, and addressed by, what you eat.

Whole30 changed my life. I won’t claim that it is easy, but the results are so dramatic as to be indisputable. It is still a struggle to balance work, family and fitness. I can be lazy and undisciplined. I still love pie and wine. The good news is that I can afford to eat whatever I want if I’m smart about it and maintain healthy eating habits most of the time.

You should try this too. Read the books. Follow the plan strictly for 30 days and see what happens. If you throw in a little exercise, I am willing to bet you will experience a massive transformation in how you look and feel. Get ready to buy some new pants.